Sufferance
by JMK758
Summary: Enterprise encounters a startling new world, but the inhabitants' secret tears at the crew. What can you do when the right thing to do is the thing that cannot be done?
1. First Contact

Disclaimer: Paramount owns Enterprise and everything connected with it, except Tia Anlor (Tee-ah' Ahn'-lor), who belongs to me and I'm not sharing. (G)

This is the 24th story in this series, the others being 'Casting Call', 'Golden Girl'; 'A Few Words'; 'Glistni'; 'Small Time'; 'Acquisition'; 'What Do I Do Now?'; 'For Want of Kilyiis'; 'Daasii'; 'Noblesse Oblige'; 'Roses and Thorny'; 'Time and Again', 'House of Cards', 'Starlight Maiden', 'Armageddon', 'Luuru', 'Cross and Crown', 'Pulsar', 'Face in the Dark Mirror', 'Time Stream', 'Treaty Violation', 'Humiliatum', 'Clara' and 'Life Goes On'. This story begins about ten days later. Tia has been on the Enterprise for over ten months.

Later works will include 'The Court Martial of Hoshi Sato', 'Empress Sato', 'Extreme Prejudice' and 'Fractured'.

Rating: M or NC-17. Nudity.

"What happens when 'the right thing to do' is the very thing that cannot be done?"

Sufferance

By JMK758

Chapter One

First Contact

Commander Charles Tucker III eased himself carefully down upon the grass. Even his bruises had bruises, it seemed, and when he surveyed the other members of his landing party they were not significantly better.

'Two brawls in one day tends to do that to you.' He thought ruefully. As a Survey mission this was a bust; as a First Contact experience it was an utter disaster. And until they could return to, or at least communicate with, Enterprise, there was not much prospect of its getting better.

He had taken first watch, as well as last, being relieved by the Exobiologist Tia Anlor at dawn. As the sun rose in the southwest, he carefully scanned the horizon for signs of any movement. About 900 meters before him was the edge of a small forest, the limits of which had not been determined. In the other three directions the land spread out before them, clear and level. The grassy mound upon which they had positioned themselves was over three meters tall and had the advantage of allowing them to see for a considerable distance in all directions. They could see any approaching natives and have a chance to get to cover behind the low rise should it be necessary.

Thus far, cover and the opportunity to avoid contact with the locals were becoming very necessary.

x

He took a moment in the quiet dawn to reflect on the events that had led to this situation. It had all started out so normally just a day ago. Enterprise had come out of warp within a previously unmapped solar system; itself hardly a surprise. Interestingly enough, this system did not appear on the Vulcan Star Charts which formed their main source of navigational information.

T'Pol had no explanation for the omission of this system on the star charts, which was enough to put Archer on the alert. The Vulcan survey ships occasionally ignored systems that they had no interest in, but this was the first time in his experience that such a system had included a Minshara Class planet.

The omission still might not have been considered unusual except for the fact that all the surrounding systems, nebula and other stellar artifacts were listed, catalogued and described in sufficient detail – except for this system.

Such a glaring omission could not fail to arouse interest. Everything in the sector was recorded except this one star system. It was almost as if it were being intentionally ignored.

The system was forthwith designated 'Declan' by Ensign Mayweather, who was running a very close 4th on the all-time-high number of new systems discovered, identified and catalogued.

Jonathan Archer had long since ceased the practice of a ship's commander designating a new celestial body; there were simply so many of them along their course. It being Mayweather's 'turn', the system was forthwith designated 'Declan' in the official records in recognition of its relation to other previously mapped bodies in the sector.

It was determined that the fourth planet was 'Minshara' class, that designation being named after the first body so found by the Vulcan explorers from whom they had received their navigational charts. That is, a planet suitable for humanoid life, even as Earth had been found to be nearly a hundred years ago. In fact, there was a considerable if widely scattered humanoid population detected. Each population center had several hundred inhabitants, but each was several kilometers away from its nearest neighbors.

This world seemed to be in a stage of development very roughly analogous to that of mid-twentieth century Earth, had that world not developed an extensive technological bent. At least this was what could be determined from orbital images. It was agrarian as well as technological, though technology seemed to be quite limited and habitations were spread over wide ranges. There did not seem to be more than about a thousand inhabitants in any one area.

The Away team was not to make contact, as the planet's technology was quite evidently pre-warp. The planet, however, seemed quite worthy of investigation.

x

Two Landing Parties were dispatched, one to form a purely scientific research into the planet, the other a more generalized overview. It had been decided to equip a small team to make the initial survey: Tucker to pilot the pod and command the first team, Hoshi to provide translation should they encounter any natives, Tia for biological analysis of flora, fauna and the natives.

But the addition of Seamus O'Cathain to the Landing Party had surprised Trip. It turned out that the Astrometer had a minor in Geology which was basically languishing aboard ship, so he had gone to the Captain some weeks ago requesting posting on an upcoming team before he forgot what a rock looked like.

This planet seemed like a reasonable chance to put the scientist to work. "Let him get some grass under his feet, and learn there is more to space exploration than nebula, stars and quasars." Archer had put it that way to Trip; also adding a private if tongue-in-cheek caveat to the effect, considering the personal interplay of the team, of 'just don't let it develop into a double date, okay?'

If Trip had known what was to come, he would have piloted the Shuttlepod toward the nearest tropical island and taken his lumps when he got back.

x

It had seemed a simple job. Go down, look around, don't interact with anyone, take some biological and geological samples and come back. What was learned from the first tests would determine how the rest of the mission would proceed. How could anyone guess it would go so horribly wrong?

'What could go wrong' had been answered very quickly, moments after the first Shuttlepod launched. The Declan star was in the midst of an unnoticed series of changes. Contrary to popular belief, unless scans are being run at the very moment a star is experiencing a major fluctuation, it took some time to gather sufficient information to let the Science Department know something unusual was happening, or even going to happen. Therefore, the massive flares which resulted in powerful EM bursts had caught everyone by surprise. Pod Two had been unable to launch, though the polarizing of the hull plating had protected Enterprise's electronic systems. Pod One, having launched minutes before, was not so lucky.

The apparently stable star had flared with insufficient warning when the shuttlepod containing the team had barely entered the incomplete protection of the outer atmosphere. The electromagnetic radiation had fried most of the systems, and it was only through the rapid and coordinated efforts of the team in re-establishing at least some of the ship's controls that had allowed them to land. With the inertial stabilizers overstressed, 'land' was a somewhat mild word for it; 'slam like a rock onto the surface' seemed to better cover it.

Even if they could navigate safely, they were not going anywhere without obtaining or fashioning replacement parts for systems burned out by the blast of radiation.

Tucker pulled his communicator to the zippered pocket in the sleeve of his uniform and flipped open the antenna grid, trying again to contact the orbiting starship. A burst of static screamed at him loudly enough to startle his two remaining fellow scientists awake.

He did not take any 'notice' at all of the fact that they had fallen asleep after their respective watches quite close together, enough so that O'Cathain, resting behind Hoshi so that the line of their bodies touched, had his arm draped over Hoshi's body in an attempt, the Commander was sure, to keep her 'warm'.

He returned the device to his sleeve pocket with an apologetic smile. "I can only get through for a few seconds, and not at all this time. Enterprise keeps having to shut down to avoid the EM bursts, but even if they could send a pod, these solar flares are still ionizing everything. The transporter is out of the question."

"Thank God!" Hoshi exclaimed feelingly, rubbing sleep from her eyes and inching forward away from Seamus – by about a quarter inch. She had had only one experience with the transporter, and though it had turned out well in the end, in real life, it had left her so shaken that she did not think she would ever willingly use it again.

From their orbital scans, Trip believed that this culture was sufficiently advanced to be able to help them, at least with raw materials.

That is, if the locals would just stop trying to kill them.

x

"What do you think, Seamus?" Trip asked, shielding his eyes against the glare of the rising sun as he scanned the horizon, even though Tia stood two feet from him, doing so far more efficiently with the high powered telescopic sights. He turned back to the battered man who was reclining on the grassy knoll next to him. O'Cathain had removed his arm from Hoshi's body and had also moved back a discrete inch – but not very much more.

"I think we're getting our heads handed to us." The Astrometer answered feelingly, his Irish brogue particularly pronounced as he gingerly flexed his left shoulder. He was planetside on this survey mission to log a few hours of surface time in an occupation that was normally strictly shipboard; or at least conducted in the environs of deep space. His environ was a shipboard observatory; his job not an occupation in which there were many life or death, hand-to-hand conflicts.

Next time he would not be so quick to volunteer.  
"Wish I knew what we were doing wrong."

x

Yesterday, a few hours after they had landed and set forth in search of the materials they would need for repairs, they had encountered a party of four natives of this Minshara class planet. Relations had started out cordial with these distinctly humanoid beings, human to the limit of Tucker's observation, right up to the point where the leader had attacked him.

The unexpected assault was the signal for a general melee, and though the Enterprise team acquitted themselves well, they had to do so bare-handed; the restriction against phase pistols being used against a pre-warp culture ringing in Tucker's ears. The other members of his team, Linguist Hoshi Sato and Biologist Tia Anlor, had been caught just as off-guard but had managed to hold off their own foes, yet none knew the reason for the natives' unprovoked attack or their precipitous withdrawal.

When, a few hours later, the team's journey to where the tricorder had detected a large if distant population center had been interrupted by the approach of a group of nine males, none of whom had been part of the previous group; they had made a somewhat more cautious contact. These had approached from the direction in which they had been traveling, presumably from the population center their scanner had detected.

The sudden brawl was joined in less than two minutes.

This time, however, the odds were considerably more heavily weighed against the Enterprise crew. They had managed, just barely, to drive the larger group off only through the intense training required of Starfleet officers, particularly under Lt. Malcolm Reed's supervision, but not without collecting a variety of injuries.

Trip felt his right ribs gingerly, where a heavy rod, from a man coming in from beside him as he'd defended himself against one man, had gotten under his defense. He was sure he was going to have a good size bruise to remember this planet by. Seamus O'Cathain, handling two opponents in that melee, had been favoring his left leg ever since. Tia, dealing with three natives with the characteristic speed and strength of a guerilla-trained Auran Resistance Fighter had fared best of all, but had gone down under a heavy club to her back, and though Hoshi's black belt in Aikido had allowed her to give as good as she had gotten against her two opponents, her left eye was blackened and she had collected several bruises to her face and elsewhere Trip could not see save in the cautious way she moved.

Now they had taken position at the top of a three meter high grassy knoll where they could tend to their injuries as well as possible while keeping a watchful eye out for any other attackers.

x

"Hoshi, did you get anything from that second 'encounter'?"

"Yes, a shiner that'll last for about a week." The woman had been fine tuning the Universal Translator when Tucker had gone down, driven by a heavy fist. She had looked up in time to see an equally massive fist an inch from her left eye before she was knocked off her feet.

"I meant -."

"I know, Commander. The translator was working properly, it got enough of what we needed prior to the first attack; I'm sure of it. But I could turn this thing off and you'd manage just fine without it."

That pronouncement was enough to get everyone's attention. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, Commander, that the language they are speaking is based on an archaic dialect of English very strongly influenced by Italian, French and German." She had to suppress a laugh at the expression on the Second Officer's face.

"Wait a minute. Are you trying to tell me –."

"I'm not _trying_ to tell you anything, Commander. I _am_ telling you. Their language originated on Earth."

x

Trip Tucker would not for the galaxy express any doubt about Hoshi's expertise on the subject of languages. If she said this language came from Earth; then no matter how far fetched the theory sounded, it came from Earth.

"It's as if these languages were pulled away from Earth as they were spoken, say three hundred years ago, and then allowed to blend into a hodgepodge and evolve completely on their own." She continued.

"On Earth, language standardized with the advent of mass communication; radio and the like. Before then, you could travel five hundred miles in your own country and be exposed to dialects and accents that would render your own language almost unintelligible to you.

"But let's say that, three or four centuries ago, you pulled Britons, Americans, Germans, Italians and French men and women out of their native environs and dropped them here. They'd learn to communicate between themselves, and their language would evolve in a way completely different from the way it did on Earth."

"So, you're saying these people are humans?"

"Well, I'm not ready to say _absolutely_, but the theory fits what I've found so far."

"I agree." Seamus said. "From what we've seen, these people look human."

Trip glanced at Tia, standing watch with a pair of magnifying binoculars. "Ask me not. To me, you sound all like sintakas." He grinned, not knowing what a 'sintaka' was and doubtful he wanted to be enlightened.

x

He returned his attention to Hoshi and Seamus. "All right, any more theories?"

"They're not colonists; that's for certain." Seamus declared. "We're too far out even for the earliest of the early warp ships, and nuclear powered vessels would take _years_ to get this far. If they were from Earth in modern times, they'd be more advanced and more homogenized. We'd be able to communicate with them no matter what Earth language they spoke."

"Agreed." Hoshi concurred.

"So, if they're not colonists, any guess how they got here? Or _could_ they have evolved here?" Even before he asked, he had dismissed the notion, but he wanted the concurrence of his fellow scientists, if only so he could throw it out with a clear conscience.

"No." Hoshi declared definitely. "This language is an evolution of a compilation of clearly defined human root languages. The odds of an independent evolution are so high I won't even entertain them."

"These men are human." Seamus agreed. Even with specialties in such far removed disciplines as Astrometrics and Geology, he felt firmly enough rooted in even the most basic science to declare firmly that "The closest physical evolution on a planet _identical_ to Earth could not get it so exact. Maybe their ancestors arrived an untold hundreds of years ago, but they evolved as Earthmen."

"Agree I do." Tia concurred without breaking her watch. She was the Biologist of the team, and did not find anything in O'Cathain's conclusion that could be disputed.

Trip looked up at her, at the moment more concerned with what was happening on watch. "Do you see anything?"

"Your 'scanner' it does, but clear not. Radiation affects it is. Life there is, but kind what I tell can not."

"All right." He turned back to the others. "Then we come to the next question. Why are they so friendly, and then start beating the hell out of us?"

Hoshi shrugged. "Well, there you've got me. I reviewed the records and can find no warning of their attack. Whatever keeps setting them off is probably cultural, but for the life of me I can't see what it is."

"I -."

"Movement." Tia announced, the telescopic binoculars pressed to her eyes.

x

The team was on its feet in an instant. She was looking at the stand of trees nearly a kilometer off. With their unaided eyes the others could just make out the movement of bodies that seemed to comprise a fairly large group, some apparently dressed in dark clothing, some in quite light attire, but could not resolve them into individuals. "They out of the trees come have. They on a path are that lead to our left will, but they see us soon will if remain we do."

"How many?"

"Thirteen men and…" The young woman stopped suddenly, her manner tense.

"And?" Trip pressed. He had to know, in case he had to give the order to retreat. They were surrounded by flat ground. It was perfect for observing an approaching danger, but horrible for hiding from it.

"_Kraanstat_!" Tia exclaimed feelingly, an expletive the translator would not render from the golden woman's native tongue. "Now _understand_ I do." Trip could see the small knot of people veer slightly. "Oh Aura, they us seen have!" She lowered the device and turned urgently to Hoshi, grasping her arm. "Come!"

She pulled the surprised woman several feet down the far side of the knoll, about halfway to the level ground until they could neither see, nor be seen by, the approaching party. There she let the binoculars fall to the grass.

"Your clothing take off!"

"_What_?" Hoshi was stunned, becoming even more so as the young Auran frantically tugged at the fastenings of her own garment.

x

"Shar-les! Between us and them stand." Tia yanked the zipper of her uniform down from throat to waist and tore open the blue material before the astonished trio, pulling it from her shoulders. She was not wearing the regulation black shirt, but only a bra. "Hoshi, qualsia - please. _Trust_ me. Your clothing take off. _Now_!"

The two men positioned themselves between their friends and the approaching group. They faced the approaching group rather than the two women, for which Hoshi was extremely thankful. She certainly did not want to comply, but there was something in Tia's frantic urgency that made her pull down the zipper of her own uniform.

"Hurry!" Tia had her own uniform pushed off and shoved it and her panties down past her hips so they fell to her feet like a dry puddle. But in her frantic rush she could not get her fingers to work the unfamiliar behind-the-back clasp of the bra Hoshi had insisted so many weeks ago that she wear all the time and which she did only on 'away missions' to protect her sensitive flesh from the uniform. Grabbing the cups, she pulled hard, her greater than human strength breaking the material open.

Hoshi tried not to think of the fact that she was stripping out of her clothes out in the open in front of Seamus and Trip, who at least were monitoring the approaching party. All right, with Seamus she had done this before, plenty of times, but never with such a frantic rush as Tia's obvious urgency imparted in her. In less time than she could expect she was stark naked, avoiding looking at their turned backs for fear of blushing and giving away just how embarrassed she was.

Tia snatched the bundle of her uniform, underwear and boots from her grasp, rolled it up in a ball with her own and threw the clothing down to the ground at the base of the rise behind them, where it would, hopefully, remain hidden from sight. She turned to the men who stared away from them and, before either could move, hurried up the two steps toward the top, reached up and snatched the phase pistol from Tucker's belt. She turned the control all the way to maximum and pointed it down at the bundle.

x

"_NO_!" Hoshi yelled even as Trip and Seamus whirled in surprise at Tia's snatching of the weapon and Hoshi's exclamation. This was too much, but Hoshi could not move fast enough to prevent the younger woman from pulling the trigger. The red beam leapt from the gun, past her as she ducked away, and the cloth burst into flame. The fire was so intense that in seconds there was nothing left but ashes and a small puff of smoke. "_Are you out of your mind_?" She cried.

"No. My clothing." She answered urgently, returning to the top of the rise and pressing the pistol back into Trip's hands, looking past the stunned man. "They here almost are!" She whispered urgently. "They us see clearly can. Quickly. _Hit_ me!"

"_What_?"

"Do 'what' nyasi. There time is for 'what' none. _Trust_ me!" She backed away from him to her left, knowing it was putting her naked body in full view of the approaching party, struggling to keep her voice down. "Hit me!"

Trip could not conceive of any such thing. Against a woman certainly not. Against _Tia_? He raised his hand unwillingly. "With your hand nyasi! _Der-kris _your gentle nature, Shar-les! These _bruises_ mask._ Hit me_!"

x

Seamus O'Cathain came forward from Tucker's right, grabbed her shoulder with his left hand to turn her to him, and rammed his fist hard into her stomach. Trip, broken out of his surprised paralysis, was about to take the man's head off when he realized, even as Tia doubled over, that he had 'stage' hit her, pulling his punch at the last instant and just pushing his hand into her stomach. As she bent, he brought his right arm crashing down, appearing to slam it directly into the spot where the burnished golden bruise from the club that had hit her yesterday ran from her right shoulder part of the way to her left hip. The 'powerful blow' stopped barely at her skin and she went down hard. There was no finesse in her fall; she crashed face down onto the grass.

Hoshi, with an outraged exclamation, rushed up the knoll into plain sight, trying to hurry to her friend's 'aid'; but Seamus swung back, his vicious backhand blow almost coming close enough to brush her left eyelash.

With a cry of 'pain', Hoshi 'flew' back completely off her feet to land on the grass, rolling twice with the force of the blow before she stopped; face down, unmoving, 'unconscious'. O'Cathain did not even spare a look at his beloved's nude body, turning to where Tia lay motionless at his feet. Using his boot, he turned her over onto her back to hide the already well developed bruise. She did not respond as she fell back, lying limply upon the grass, her long golden hair draped across her face.

Tucker had a thousand questions he wanted to demand answers to, but when he looked back, the approaching band had reached the bottom of the low rise.


	2. Surface Trek

Chapter Two

Surface Trek

"They're human, all right." Seamus whispered to the man next to him.

"Oh, yeah." Trip agreed emphatically, looking over the twenty one people gathered before them. There was certainly no doubt about the humanity of the women.

"Who are you, strangers?" The leader of the group, a human male some six feet tall, his nearly shoulder length black hair blowing in the breeze, asked. He was not a particularly tall man compared to the others or to Trip and Seamus, but he was dressed much more finely than his dozen fellows who ranged behind him in a loose knot. He was certainly dressed better than the eight women who stood among them, wearing not a thing at all to cover their clearly very human bodies.

What the men wore favored more the darker colors, and though the designs were unusual they were all synthetic weaves. The clothing the men wore ran mostly to what would otherwise be described as 'hiking clothes'. They were not armed, save with the short clubs that the Away team had already become far too well acquainted with.

"Traders, come a long way to seek certain technical supplies." Tucker answered, sticking to the original story they had concocted. It had served them as well as any, explaining their eventual need for the advanced or refined materials they must acquire.

"You are not from this world." The man did not even bat an eye as he gave this unexpected pronouncement.

"No." Tucker agreed, taken aback but not about to insult this person's intelligence with a devious story. Just a look at the clothing they wore, and the highly unusual women with them, an Asian and a golden skinned Auran, was enough to make it obvious. "We come from many diverse worlds." He admitted cautiously. "You know of space travelers?"

"Off-worlders come to trade with us. The Orions come often. The Ferengi have been here frequently. Others have as well."

How sad it was that the term 'Orion' meant nothing to the Enterprise crew, and that during the brief 'visit' of three of that avaricious race known as 'Ferengi', when they had all but stripped the Enterprise bare and had tried to kidnap all of the crewwomen, none of them had seen fit to reveal their own race's name. It would at least have then been very familiar to Tucker, and might have warned him of what to expect later.

But as it was, dealing with the completely unexpected revelation that this supposedly unknown world was quite well known to at least certain spacefaring races, he could only agree that "We may have some things to trade."

"We are returning to Negat, where you might find what you seek. If you wish, you may join us."

"Thank you. We shall."

x

Thus, using the direct addresses that they had come to learn over two brief encounters as the normal way of conversing, they managed to make themselves fit into the larger group. And not one questioned the otherwise unusual situation of two naked and 'unconscious' women who lay at their feet.

Trip, however, tried as hard as he could to forget them. The spectacular, if brief, sight of Hoshi Sato stripped naked was burned into his memory, and the awareness that she was still so, and would be for quite some time to come, was monumentally distracting. He had to push it aside – hard – for he could not allow himself to be distracted either by sight or memory. Not now.

Seamus stepped over to where Hoshi lay face down, kneeling on one knee beside her. He rested his hand lightly on her delightfully curved bottom. "Feelin' all right, darling?"

She opened one eye, finding that he was hiding her with his body, and picked her head up slowly. "You nearly clipped me." She answered quietly.

"I trusted that you'd catch on fast. How do you feel?"

"You _know_ how I feel well enough. Now get your hand off my butt!" He grinned at her, but made no move to remove the offending hand. She pushed herself up with her right hand, her left covering her eye.

"Keep it covered for a while. They're human so far as I can see. I'm sure we were right. Be careful; it'll take about a half hour for a good bruise to work up on that eye."

She groaned. "Tell me something I don't already know."

"All right. We might just pull this thing off." With a smart slap on her bum, he stood up, turning from her and walking over to Tia, leaving Trip to handle the 'negotiations'. Hoshi followed him with her one good eye, trying to keep the resentment she felt from showing too clearly on her face.

x

Seamus, approaching Tia, had a difficult time doing so. It was hard enough being beside Hoshi, who even face down on the grass was very familiar to him. The Auran woman, lying on her back, feigning unconsciousness, was as human to him as Hoshi was, golden flesh making no difference. As he stood over her, grateful that Tucker was distracted with his negotiations, he realized he had to be very, very careful. His noticing Hoshi was one thing, and quite in order considering the last year they had spent together. To notice the golden beauty was risky in the extreme.

He recalled the outrageous incident the first day he had met her, when she had sought his aid in learning about the 'human condition', but her command of English had been so poor – not that it had improved much in his opinion – that it had led her to declare herself to a table full of people to be his 'bitch', a declaration he had barely survived Hoshi's irate response to.

Since that day he had treated his dealings with the girl very cautiously indeed.

Now, seeing her face up and naked on the grass, her golden toned flesh glistening in the morning sunlight, his concern was more for Commander Tucker's reaction to his notice of her charms. He decided that, between Hoshi and Commander Tucker, he would have to be very careful indeed.

He looked over his shoulder back at Hoshi, who was holding herself pressed up off the grass, watching him closely. He decided that this 'away mission' had all the elements of the most enjoyable one he had ever imagined, and was not going to enjoy a bit of it.

He knelt beside Tia, moving her long golden hair aside and patting her golden cheek lightly. "How do you feel?" He kept his voice barely audible even to himself, being acquainted with her hearing. He could barely hear his own whisper, but she opened her eyes and sat up with a patently fake groan, clutching her stomach with both hands.

"_That _you a _punch_ call?" She whispered.

"Best stage fight technique, darlin'." He told her, keeping his eyes firmly locked on hers, fighting _hard_ any temptation to look below the level of her chin. She was simply too _distracting_, but he did not know how Aurans felt about such things. He _did_ know how humans felt, however, and did not want to have any trouble with his commanding officer. "I thought the Commander was going to burst a blood vessel, but we should make it. Well done."

"I a slave for all my life have been. Do help me not."

"I had no intention of it." He whispered, standing smoothly. "Get up!" He commanded sharply; then looked back at Hoshi. "You too. On your feet!"

x

Hoshi stood up, looking for someplace to hide. She felt Seamus' eyes on her and tried not to look at him, tried to fight the blush that threatened to redden her face. She was standing fully exposed at the top of a small rise, stark naked in the sight of over twenty men and women, as well as her friends. She felt the heat rush to her face, and she turned away to hide the blush she could not fight.

It did not help at all that Tia stepped over to stand next to her, calmly and unconcernedly nude.

Tucker had descended the low rise and was speaking directly with the leader of the group, who seemed unconcerned that their words were being translated by an electronic device, their lips not matching their words. If he was as acquainted with 'Ferengi' and 'Orions' as he'd implied, this could be significant. Tucker had stepped to the side so that the other did not face her, and his body in turn blocked Tucker's view – for now. She was infinitely grateful that his back was to her; for now. She knew, however, that this happy state would not last.

x

Noting the distinct division of labor, the other women carrying everything, Seamus stepped down to join the group, not even glancing at their supplies.

Within moments, the slightly larger band started off away from the rise, headed slowly toward the southwest, toward the rising sun. Hoshi and Tia looked after them, then at the stack of supplies, mostly rations, emergency gear, medical and scientific equipment; fortunately all on long and short straps but still a considerable bundle, and then at each other. The pile was not light.

There were a dozen things Hoshi could think of saying to the Auran, none of which would have improved matters. They looked back at the retreating group, the unclothed women bringing up the rear, burdened with whatever supplies the group carried, leaving the hands of the men free.

Seeing nothing that could help it, the pair started to divide their own burdens as evenly as they could before they would be left behind.

x

The party set and maintained a brisk pace, something Trip Tucker had anticipated considering the speed of their arrival at the rise. He looked back when the group had gone about a thousand meters, trying to take in as much in a casual glance as he could. Since none of the men surrounding him took any particular note of the women bearing their burdens, he could not either. He did note however, with a pang of conscience, that his two friends were making their way as best they could under considerable burden. He knew, having with Seamus carried the bulk of the supplies, just how heavy those supplies were; and hoped that it would not be a long trek.

He caught Hoshi's look before he turned back, and though she kept her hand covering her left eye, the glare she gave him with her right was hard indeed.

She hung back to the end of the group, supremely embarrassed. At least, bringing up the rear, no one was looking at her, but that did not make her feel any better at all.

He could also see now the bruises from the two earlier fights that she had managed to hide and disguise earlier.

The next time he glanced back, he caught Tia's expression. She seemed quite unperturbed by the circumstances. He felt especially guilty in her case, but the bright smile she favored him with when no one could see was as surprising as anything she had shown him since they'd met.

He did not dare smile back, but when he turned ahead again there was a rueful smile on his face nonetheless. She had shown him a very great deal indeed since they had met, and each and every thing she had had been a surprise.

x

Aurans do not have the same viewpoint about clothing that humans do, he knew very well. No part of the body was more significant than any other; and clothing was for protection from the elements or for warmth. Beyond that, tastes and styles varied dramatically; Tia's own ran more toward loose, flowing garments decorated in floral designs.

But to cover any part of the body more than any other had never occurred to her before she had met the humans of Enterprise, and it was of no concern to her how much she wore. She would be completely dressed if cold, or engaged in her work as a Biologist, where it was important to keep her own body from affecting or being affected by what she used in that work. But to cover breasts or crotch meant no more than to cover stomach or arms, so the fact that she was completely naked meant absolutely nothing to her. The weather was mild, the sunlight quite warm on their skin, so it was a matter of complete indifference how she was attired.

Hoshi, however, felt completely different about the matter, and he felt very sorry for her. Every time he glanced at her, he could see her utter humiliation, and the frustration that she experienced at her inability to cover any part of herself other than with the supplies she labored under.

When he realized her growing shame was _because_ of his seeing her, even as she held back out of sight, he no longer glanced back.

Very shortly, fortunately for the consciences of the men and for the muscles of their friends, they could see signs of habitation in the distance. Trip estimated it to be about another kilometer away, less than a half hour at their brisk pace.

x

Hoshi walked at the rear of the throng, completely humiliated, supremely embarrassed, straining under the weight of their supplies. It was one thing to be naked by choice in her own quarters with her lover Seamus, entirely different to be … She had no word for it. Blushing furiously, she wrapped herself in the cloak of her own anger.

"Hoshi?" Tia whispered beside her.

"Quiet!" She snapped, her low voice searing with barely contained fury. She was still burning over the younger woman's destruction of _all_ her clothing. She had not even given any thought; it seemed, to providing for privacy, for the times when they might be alone. She had simply destroyed _everything_. And the fact that she had been right in her assessment, that this action had indeed won them safe passage, only fueled Hoshi's resentful anger.

"But…"

"I said '_Quiet'_!" To emphasize her point, Hoshi took one of the satchels she was carrying off her shoulder, relieved to be freed of its weight, and passed it roughly to Tia. The young woman took it without comment and added it to her already burdensome load, the addition seeming not to tax the Auran's greater strength at all.

"Realize I you embarrassed are," Tia whispered, "and sorry I am, but –."

"None of the other women are talking." She whispered harshly. "You shouldn't _either_!" She also couldn't shake the resentment that while the other women trudged along, uncaring that they did not wear a stitch of clothing, she saw in Tia's eyes that she too was completely unconcerned by her nudity.

"I just to be sure wanted that –."

"_Shut up_!" Hoshi whispered furiously, startling the younger woman and attracting brief glimpses from some of the equally naked women before them. She tried to take a deep, calming breath, but it didn't work at all. She glared at the Auran with blazing eyes. "Just _shut up_!"

x

"Where would you suggest we look first?" Trip asked the man next to him, Krenim by name.

"I've little use for what you seek. Rodd and Beri's, on the north side of Negat, is your only chance. They have the only stores of off world technics. They deal a lot with the Ferengi, Orions and other alien visitors."

"Thanks."

"I've a cottage on my land that you might use while you are here. It would not cost much."

"How much?" Tucker asked carefully. They did not have a lot of supplies. They had scrounged together any non-essential items they could spare in anticipation of trade, and what little they had back at the 'landing' site would be needed in repairing the shuttlepod. But if Krenim had 'little use' for technical equipment, what would interest him in exchange for this lodging?

"Don't worry, friend. I would not cheat you." He looked back at the thoroughly burdened Hoshi and Tia, as if trying to gauge the extent of their resources. "I'm sure we'll work out something fair."

Trip did not answer. In his experience, everyone had their own definition of 'fair'.

xxx

The town they entered approximated, in Tucker's opinion, that of a moderate sized rural community in the southern states of America; say around the early to mid-1900's. Certainly there was nothing blatantly unusual about it; and that in itself was the most unusual feature.

Had he walked into this town on Earth, the sight of shops and lawns and homes would have been boringly average; certainly nothing out of the ordinary – for Earth.

For Declan IV, it was unusual in the extreme; not because it was so alien, but because it was so _normal_.

There were too many things being laid before the Enterprise crew that confirmed their theories regarding the origin of these people. The only thing left to be explained was; how had these people gotten here?

x

People went about their business, sparing the arriving group not a glance. In fact, there were only two noteworthy features Trip could find.

One was the sharp and distinct division between clothed men and serenely unclad women, and the other that there was not a conveyance of any type in sight.

In fact, the streets they walked down were smoothed enough only to accommodate the bare feet of half the city's residents, and much too narrow for pedestrians to share with any car Trip had ever seen. There was not even a hint of an elevated sidewalk.

The observation, which he noted to Seamus, was further bourn out in the fact that there was absolutely nothing in sight that could be used for locomotion of any kind. No cars, not a moped, a bicycle or even a skate board.

Gradually the group thinned. There was no formal leave-taking that they could take note of. People simply went their own ways when it was time to do so, and in due time Trip's companion indicated it was their turn to separate from the very small band that remained.

"This is my home." Krenim informed them casually, indicating a single story structure. It was made of wood, painted an attractive combination of blue with white trim; what Trip might refer to as a 'bungalow' if he were back in Florida with his family. The two women with Krenim opened the door and entered; something Trip took particular note of. From what he could see in a fast view, it was not that the front door had been left unlocked. Rather, it did not seem to have a lock.

"This," he indicated a similar dwelling next door, "belongs to my brother, who is in Desron for a few weeks. You may use it in his absence." He led them across the manicured lawn and pulled open the wooden door.

"Thank you." Trip replied, trying to keep his thoughts from showing in his face. The casual acceptance and the cavalier way in which a brother's home was loaned to perfect strangers was as astonishing as it was impressive, especially from a culture that had, on two occasions, tried to beat their heads in.

He had to wonder just what this impressive level of 'hospitality' was going to 'cost' them.

"I do not know how much food he left, but we will have our meal in about two hours. You are welcome to share with us."

"Thank you."

With no good-bye; in fact Trip had not heard the words all the way into town; he turned and went back to his own dwelling. With a small shrug, Trip held the door open for his companions.

As soon as the door was closed, Trip pulled from his pocket the Universal Translator he carried, turning it off. He was not certain just how private this home could be in a world where locks on doors did not seem to exist, but now they could converse in privacy.

x

Most of the interior consisted of a single large room, with doors spaced to indicate two rooms to their right, and two more at the far side of the house. There was a large table just inside and to the left of the door, and upon this the women unloaded their burdens. Tia looked about the room with pleased curiosity, finding several pieces of decorative wood carvings scattered about the room; but Hoshi moved with a purposeful gait, opening each door in turn and inspecting the smaller rooms. The second she chose was clearly what she was seeking, for she strode in and emerged a few moments later completely enmeshed in a large blue blanket, carrying a folded gray one. She threw the gray one at, not to, Tia; who caught it easily but did not move to wrap herself in it. Hoshi pulled the other more determinedly about her body. "I'm chilled." She said in explanation, but the only thing chilled was her tone.

She looked at Tia, who stood with the gray blanket in her hand, ignoring it as she examined the decorative workmanship of the woodwork displayed on several surfaces about the room. "Cover yourself." She ordered brusquely. She sat down in a chair, but as she did she caught sight of Seamus. He had been looking at her, but when she had covered up she noticed he had started turning his attention to Tia. He kept glancing at Tia as she walked, unconcernedly naked, about the room. "Tia?"

The golden girl looked at her. "Daai?" She asked, the Auran word for 'yes', pronouncing it 'day-eye'.

"I told you to _cover_ yourself!" Hoshi commanded so sharply that Trip looked up from the supplies he was sorting on the table before him.

Tia shook her head. "Do on my worth… um, 'account' worry not." Tia answered with her almost musical accent. Though she was becoming adept in English, she still occasionally hunted for words, substituted incorrect words in a manner that sometimes had her hearers struggling to school their expressions, and normally used English words with Auran syntax. "To Aurans remember a sensitivity is clothes about not. We to work or temperature according wear, and here is –."

Hoshi, watching Seamus staring at the nude Auran, leapt to her feet, her rage boiling over. "_I said_ '**_cover yourself_**'!" She screamed; her shrill cry startling in its unrepressed fury. Her eyes blazed with such fiery intensity that Tia dropped the blanket, backing away, frightened. Both the men were equally startled by the normally placid Ensign's wrath.

x

But the change in Tia was staggering. Head bowed and seeming to shrink into herself, she hurried to Trip and actually _hid_ behind him. Resisting his effort to turn to face her, keeping her eyes carefully downcast, she whispered meekly "Daai, Mistress."

Covering her breasts with one hand and her crotch with the other, she came out from behind the cover of the surprised and outraged Engineer's body, sidestepped past and behind O'Cathain. Keeping her back to the wall as she moved carefully sideways, giving everyone in the room as wide a berth as possible. Her eyes locked on the floor, her manner fearful and servile, she made for the bedroom door. "Sorry I am, Mistress." She whispered timidly, her voice trembling in abject terror.

As the three Enterprise officers watched; their friend, normally so vivacious and confident, eased herself fearfully to the door of the bedroom. When she reached it she backed in, not turning from them, hunched into herself as though fearful of more than a verbal assault. "Forgive me, Mistress." She whispered meekly. "I _sorry_ am, Mistress." She escaped into the room, shutting the door between them.

x

As soon as the door was closed Tucker turned on the Communications Officer. He had been willing to give her considerable leeway, considering the stress she had endured, until she had screamed at the younger woman, but now he gave in to the outrage he had been restraining. "Hoshi, that was completely _uncalled_ for!"

"But – but I – I'm sorry, but – but I never …" Her stammering protest was cut off as the door opened again. Tia Anlor … 'sauntered' is the only word to cover it... out of the room. She was still nude; her golden body moving lithely. In her hand she carried a small piece of material. She virtually flounced over to another chair, which she turned toward Hoshi. She sat down primly, shaking out the material, which was revealed to be a pillowcase.

Tucking one end under her arms to hold it in place; she carefully and deliberately positioned it so that it covered the lower half her breasts, coming just high enough to cover her golden nipples to the areolas, but not a millimeter higher. The middle of the other end she tucked between her legs, carefully flaring out the ends enough to just obscure her pubes.

Then she looked Hoshi in the eye, and her voice was firmer than any of them had ever heard it. "After our talk that first day on which I you to came to English me teach; I much study what acceptable in your world is. After T'Pol's '_lecture'_ at Shar-les' birthday party more so." She said with heavy irony tainting real anger, an emotion they had very rarely seen from the impish young woman. "Much it was that made sense nyasi, but as rules it I took."

She waved her hands over her covered body. "See you now that covered my pringlee, even to the alyes, are." She deliberately used the Auran terms. "My sulyas none see can and my minlu I seated upon am. On Aura is distinction there _nyasi_. These parts are distinct nyasi, as well you _know_. Only distinct are they to _humans_. By the rules your world of _legal_ I am, with regard for the customs of _my_ world nyasi. Concern you show for Aura's customs nyasi, but for your world's customs _alone_!"

In the span of one heartbeat to the next her manner completely changed. She looked down, her entire body seeming to shrink into a cautious cringe, and when she spoke again it was in a barely audible whisper drowning in servility. "Is now acceptable my attire to you, Mistress?"

She did not move, waiting, hunched in apprehensively. Her eyes were filled with terror, and she watched Hoshi intently, cautiously, as though fearful of a beating should her alertness slip. Hoshi looked from her to their friends, her face red. Neither man showed any indication of what they were thinking. She turned back to the waiting Auran. "Tia, I'm … I'm sorry. I – I was _embarrassed_, and took it out on you. All I could think of, while walking out there, was that everyone was _looking_ at me! They were _staring_ at me, and I couldn't _stand_ it! And I took it out on you. I'm sorry."

Tia looked up, her 'fear' vanishing and her eyes sparkled with her usual impish delight. "But they were nyasi, do see you nyasi? Watched I we as walked did. _Care_ they did nyasi. Two more unclothed women; seen they their whole lives have. Thing special we are nyasi."

"Thanks a lot." Hoshi said wryly. She wasn't sure if she was more put out by being forced to parade nude through the town or that no one gave a damn.

x

Tia laughed gaily. "See what it have I said is? Mad you are unclothed to be; then mad you are regarded to be _not_. Do want you men to have look at your pringlee – your 'breasts' – look not; to seek your sulyas not; so cover you them do to them make look harder, make them _want_ to see. Here _care_ they nyasi!

"On Enterprise if men naked women all the time see do; bored will they become. _Want_ to see naked women all the time and '_stiff_ as boards' they become."

Hoshi stared at her friend, astonished, then burst into laughter.


	3. Rodd and Beri

Chapter Three

Rodd and Beri

"Tia, I apologize." Hoshi said. "You certainly put things in perspective."

The golden hued woman grasped the pillowcase. "Then remove this I may?" Without waiting for an answer, she pulled the material off, settling it over her knee. "Silly I feeling was." She saw Hoshi glance at the two men, neither of whom had left their spots during all of the drama. "Know what thinking you are, and concerned you should be nyasi."

"No?"

"Shar-les, well, that _our_ 'business' is." Hoshi nodded. "As to Shame-ous, touch me he shall not or, as Elizabeth says, 'bat his balls out of the park' I shall." The bemused expression on her lover's face made Hoshi laugh. "Besides, respect for him have I _nyasi_."

Surprised, Hoshi sobered. This she did not want. "Why not?"

"He punch worth _daakis_ can not."

x

"Well, on that note," Commander Tucker said firmly, picking up one of the boxes that Hoshi had carried, determined to retrieve the situation from the session of feminine bonding, or 're-bonding', that it was turning into, "we still have to find this Rodd and Beri and see if they have what we need to fix the pod."

"I think we have something more to consider as well." Seamus spoke up. "Namely; the odd nature of these people here."

"So far, _everything_ about them has been odd." Tucker replied irritably. "Just what do you have in mind?"

"Well, sir, now that we're here and I've had a chance to examine them closely -."

"I'll just bet you did." Hoshi said with a tone just a tiny notch below accusation. Seamus gave her a hard glance, but determined to carry on as though she had not interrupted.

He had been trying very hard not to notice either of his crewmates. Hoshi was one thing – he knew her with an intimate detail only an attentive lover could; but Tia was quite another. He remembered vividly the many, many images that had intruded upon his monitors in Astrometrics just two weeks ago. It had been made very clear to him, even if he did not already know it thoroughly, that the Auran had a total disregard for covering any 'special' or 'particular' parts of her body – such being a human concept, not an Auran one. In the privacy of her own quarters this was even more strongly demonstrated.

She was also, save for her golden toned skin; so 'human' externally as to be startling, not to mention vastly stimulating, for both the similarities as well as for the 'exotic' differences. He knew there were internal differences; quite a number of them in fact, but these mattered not at all, particularly when presented with such stunning external similarities.

But this was different. Though the reality was far better than a few hundred images, he knew he had to be very, very careful.

He could not afford to let his notice of the stunning golden woman be noticed by either Hoshi or – worse – Commander Tucker. This was trouble he did not need.

So he kept his tone as level, as impersonally analytical, as he could; and continued as though Hoshi had not spoken.

x

"I managed to draw a few conclusions. And while I grant you I am not the Biologist here, I'll bet you ten years pay that our theory is right. These people did _not_ evolve here."

"No bet at all. This is a group of settlements that have become permanent, nothing more. This is not a race that sprang up from the mud on a primitive planet, and over millennia populated the globe with civilization after civilization. We've seen nothing but the modern equivalent of Earth's early to mid-20th century played out here."

"I'd say this race is almost certainly from Earth. And they have ample knowledge of several alien races, despite not appearing on those famous Vulcan Star Charts. But if they are from Earth, then what are they doing here at this level of development?"

"That's the 64 billion dollar question. Who brought them here?"

"Is possible you wrong are?" Tia asked doubtfully, not liking that her companions were confidently reaching conclusions.

"They're definitely human." O'Cathain said. "No doubt about that. I checked very thoroughly." Hoshi glared at him sharply – there was only one way to do a 'thorough' check, but this time she held her tongue. If they got on that subject again, they would be fighting about it all day.

"It's pretty clear we need a lot more information." Trip took out his communicator from the sleeve pocket, pressing the button that raised the antenna grid. He was greeted with a nerve jangling burst of static. He did not even bother to transmit a signal, snapping it closed.

"To Rodd and Beri's?" Seamus proposed

"To Rodd and Beri's."

x

The four headed toward the door, but when they reached it Hoshi hesitated. She started to pull off the blanket, but stopped. "I can't." She looked up at Trip. "I can't go out there." She did not want to beg him not to make her, but her tone carried the plea clearly.

The expression he turned to her was one of understanding, but it did not make her feel any better that he was being 'understanding'. "It's all right. We've got the Universal Translator. It's gotten us along so far."

She looked at the door, the struggle between duty and shame clear on her face. She had to be out there; could not trust their success or fate to a device, even if she had programmed it to the best of her ability. It was not perfect; was not infinitely adaptable; could not reprogram itself indefinitely as situations changed. All these things she could do, which was why she was here, why she was on the Enterprise in the first place.

Moreover, she couldn't hide herself here while the others went on to complete their duties. As ashamed as she was, she couldn't bear the thought of being so … so _cowardly_.

x

But the trauma of what had happened just over two weeks ago, with the illicit displays of Mary Tigat's contraband pictures on every monitor on the ship, was still too fresh. Every woman on board had been deeply humiliated, one deeply traumatized by what that woman had done. That one crewwoman; Alicia Carstairs, Tigat's own roommate; had been driven to try to take her own life.

Now, worse by far, she was being asked to endure far more than nude photos of herself upon computer screens. She was being asked to strip again and go out in public naked. To put her nude body on the ultimate display before a whole town. Never mind that naked women were _de rigor_, were so common they were not noteworthy. She was not from this culture, did not have this fallback.

She just couldn't _do_ it.

It was one thing to allow Seamus to see her. That was nothing unusual for her. It was all right when she was in the 'mood', could choose the time. But she could not disrobe in front of Tucker. Never mind that Tia stood beside her, unconcernedly nude. That did not make any difference. She couldn't bring herself to expose herself so blatantly to him.

She _couldn't_!

x

She started to pull the blanket off, stopped, started again. No one said a word or made a move. They would let her make up her own mind. She started and stopped again and finally, with a vicious motion, she ripped the blanket from her body and virtually slammed the cloth onto the table. The few bruises she'd received in the two fights were now quite evident on her body, standing out starkly against her flesh. Trip tried his very best not to notice, keeping his eyes locked firmly on her face.

No one said a word, not sure what would have made the situation better or worse. Tucker looked instead at the supplies that were set on the table beside them. He looked at Hoshi, doing his best to keep eye contact and not a fraction lower. "Do you have your communicator?"

Hoshi looked at Tia resentfully. "She fried it."

Trip looked at his beloved, who stepped back sheepishly. "There time was nyasi."

"I don't suppose you retrieved yours?"

She shrugged. "Char-broiled?"

How he kept from saying anything he did not know, but Hoshi spread her arms expressively. "It hardly matters. Where would we _carry_ them?" The two men exchanged glances. "Say it and _die_!"

Trip kept his lips pressed tightly together, trying not to smile, but it was a struggle. He finally managed to force enough of a straight face to say. "I wouldn't dare."

x

Tucker pulled open the door, but though he, Seamus and Tia stepped out onto the lawn, Hoshi held back, still unable to bring herself to move. Trip looked at her, but she shook her head tightly; blushing deep red. O'Cathain turned to Tucker. "Begging your pardon, sir, but it might be useful for the ladies to do some reconnaissance from here. If we can learn something about this culture, perhaps by interviewing some of the locals, it might help in our negotiations."

"You're right, Lieutenant." Tucker agreed, reading between the man's lines. It would be an opportunity for Hoshi to work and save face, particularly since he doubted she would be able to wield much influence in the haggling to come. "Hoshi, you and Tia conduct some discrete interviews. See what you can learn."

"Aye, sir." Hoshi replied, monumentally relieved.

xx

As they started down the road in the previously indicated direction where Rodd and Beri had their establishment, which had been reported as being near the low hills that bordered the far end of town, Tucker and O'Cathain walked in silence for a short span.

"What are your impressions, Lieutenant?" Tucker asked, finally breaking the silence.

"I think I'm going to be relieved and disappointed to return to Enterprise." The Astrometer answered, his eyes tracking a particularly impressive woman who passed them in all her unclad glory.

"Amen." Tucker agreed feelingly.

"I wonder what could have led to such a sharp division." O'Cathain mused; not at all opposed to whomever it had been who had made this arrangement.

"I'm not an Anthropologist." Tucker said.

"Neither am I." O'Cathain agreed, noticing particularly a woman approaching on the other side of the 'street', whose ample charms could attract the attention of a Vulcan. "But I know what I like!"

"I'd be careful, if I were you."

"How's that?"

"No one else is 'noticing' these women; so we better not either. No telling what the result could be." He grinned at his fellow. "You might wind up married."

"I could think of worse fates."

"I'll be sure to let Hoshi know."

O'Cathain's smile disintegrated for about a second. But then it was back in full force.

"But if the Captain is ever on the lookout for a 'shore leave' site, this one has my vote."

"Agreed."

x

He took a few more steps and then the bantering tone was gone from his voice. "Just so we're clear, Lieutenant, I've _also_ seen you noticing Tia."

Seamus' expression froze, and he did not look at the Commander. But while he knew he had to be cautious in his answer, he did not dare insult the man's intelligence. "She is a very beautiful lady, sir."

"No argument there, Lieutenant. Just so we're clear; I don't want to have to discuss the matter with you."

"No, sir. You won't."

xx

Eventually, after a most memorable journey, during which the moment of tension between them seemed to have evaporated, they made their way to the far end of town; and the sight they beheld made that of all the nude women they had seen seem to pale in comparison. "I don't believe it!" Trip exclaimed.

Where every building they had passed on their trek had been very obviously constructed by hand out of native materials, the tremendous structure before them was of metal, white and featureless, but of very modern construction – modern for the technology of the 22nd Century.

It was huge, easily three stories tall and covering nearly a square acre of land. There was one door facing the town, and no visible windows.

"Rodd and Beri's?" O'Cathain hazarded.

"You think?"

"Well, at a guess, I'd say – yeah."

"This just keeps getting better and better."

The two men turned back to the sprawling warehouse. "Well, let's see what they have." Tucker said.

"Like a Mark 9 Speedster, maybe?"

"I'm thinking more like an XTM-4 mega-yacht."

"Make mine red."

"I'll see what we have in the budget."

x

As they entered, they quickly discovered that the inside upheld the implied promise of the outside. The cavernous interior contained widely spaced aisles that stretched away into the distance and contained, so their scanners reported, the most astonishing array of modern technological equipment and devices Trip had seen outside of San Francisco's Starfleet Headquarters.

Coming toward them was a man who easily stood two meters tall, who greeted them with outstretched arms and a smile to match. He was wearing clothes much like the other men on the planet did, but they fit him more like a costume. "Welcome, strangers." His voice boomed and echoed in the tremendous space. "I'm certain I have just what you are seeking."

Of that, Trip had no doubt.


	4. Outraqe

Chapter Four

Outrage

When Trip and Seamus returned over an hour later to the loaned cabin, they entered to find Hoshi and Tia speaking with one of the native women. Hoshi, seated with her back to the door, tries to huddle into the seat without appearing to do so. The two men 'ignore' them, going to the table and just happen to stand with their backs to the women, continuing their conversation in quiet tones so they will not interrupt the 'interview' progressing behind them.

Tia thanked the woman for speaking to them, escorting her to the door and letting her out. When she is gone Hoshi made a discrete dash for the blanket tossed on a chair, wrapping it about herself and Tia turned off the UT she is holding. She gave a discrete nod from the door and the two men turned around as if nothing abnormal had happened.

"Thank you." Hoshi said gratefully.

"Don't mention it."

"Oh, don't worry. I'm never going to talk about this trip to _anyone_."

"I don't blame you one bit." Tucker agreed.

"What learn did you? These people us help can?"

"You wouldn't believe it." Trip exclaimed, letting his enthusiasm for the marvels he had seen carry him. "We've got to go back; it will take a bit to dig up everything we need, but he seems to have it. This is a Black Market planet. These guys have technology from every advanced planet I've ever heard of, and a good deal more I haven't.

"They must do quite a trade. This planet is the best kept secret in the galaxy; at least it is from Earth. They must service every race in the quadrant. He's got enough spare parts from ships of all kinds that if I had a couple of weeks I could probably tool together a ship just from the spares."

"What do they want in return?" Hoshi asked, concerned about their already short supplies. Neither man answered her at first, a telling glance between them all she needed. "No _farging_ way!"

Trip barely restrained a smile. "Actually, Seamus here haggled you up so high they decided the price was just too steep."

"Thanks." She said with a relieved smile. O'Cathain glanced at the young golden woman.

"Tia, however, goes with the first shipment."

"_SUUR_?" The golden woman cried.

He raised his hand placatingly. "Just kidding."

"You funny are _not_!"

"All right, let's get serious." Trip ordered, annoyed at his subordinate's thoughtless comment. O'Cathain had 'forgotten' Tia's past, and how sensitive she was about slavery. "They can outfit us, but it'll take a bit of time to get all the pieces together. At that, I have no doubt they can."

"What do we do about this planet?" Hoshi asked.

"You mean about Rodd and Beri's little techno-empire? Aside from the fact that Earth knew nothing about it, I'm not entirely sure what we can do."

"No, Commander, I'm not talking about their Black Market." She answered as bitingly as she dared. "In fact, I don't give a _damn_ about that. I'm talking about what we should do for these women."

x

Trip closed his eyes, wishing he could make the entire planet, the entire situation, vanish as easily. He knew what Hoshi was leading up to. He remembered her outrage over the treatment of the women on Capella IV, but there was nothing that could be done for either.

He kept his eyes closed as long as he could, savoring every second the three granted, seeking peace in silence. His moment of peace was shattered by Hoshi's sharp tones.

"Will you _stop looking_ at her?" She demanded irately. "Do you think I don't _see_?"

When Trip saw what he had missed in the brief moment of indulgence; Sato standing between Seamus and Tia, furiously confronting her superior officer, his patience deserted him.

"All right. Let's end this _right now_!" He ordered sharply, commanding the attention of the three of them, frustration flooding his tone. "You," he addressed Hoshi, "get yourself under control. You," to Seamus, "eyes front. That's an order."

"Aye, sir." He complied; relieved to have 'escaped' a more severe consequence of what had actually been a brief, ill timed glance.

"And you -," he turned to Tia; but the sight of her helped him to get his annoyance back under control. It did no good to yell at any of them. But he could not leave his beloved out of this, no matter how badly he wanted to. He sighed resignedly. "Put the blanket on."

"Daai." She submitted obediently, seeing he was trying his best to defuse an increasingly tense situation.

Besides, he was her Alirki, as she had willingly made him so long ago. In the Auran, it translated to 'Lord', and though she was no longer a 'slave', and certainly not his, she had willingly and lovingly elevated him to the position of Alirki in her mind, and had given him a level of 'command' that they had never and would never explain to anyone.

It was a strictly Auran concept; he did not wish it but knew she had chosen to put herself under his 'command' in all things out of love. The thought still made him vastly uncomfortable, but now he used it with a measure of relief, knowing she would obey and not argue with him. Right now, he needed someone not to argue with him.

As she crossed the room to get the gray blanket from where it had been put on a chair, Trip shook his head, knowing his problems were far from over.

x

It was time to get things back to order. He turned to Hoshi. "What did you learn?"

She took a deep breath, trying to get her own emotions back under control; and to report concisely while she had her Commander's support. "Tia went out to 'lure' one of the women in from the street. Etan was very hospitable, and knew a lot about this world's situation; naturally. Believe it or not, Commander, these people _know_ they are from _Earth_."

Even as he heard the surprising pronouncement, he could not deny he had suspected it all along. Still, there was a big difference between suspicion and having that belief confirmed. Now that it was, it answered a lot of questions.

"They have been here for so long they know nothing else but this place." Hoshi continued. "But they do know that their ancestors came from Earth, and were brought here long ago by a spacefaring civilization. Seeded, as it were.

"That's why they take 'off-worlders' so much in stride as they do. Aliens coming here to trade and profit are nothing unusual. In fact, they have a thriving trade market."

"What do they trade?" Seamus asked.

"Guess."

x

Trip stared at the blue blanketed woman before him and actually felt the blood drain from his face.

He could barely believe it. Even with the evidence all about him, he did not _want_ to believe it. But he could not deny his shipmate's forceful words.

"Commander, these women are _slaves_; nothing else. They're allowed no clothes, no possessions, absolutely nothing. They cannot read or write. They own nothing, but do almost all of the work here. They have one right; and one only. The right to do what any man tells them to do. That is, until the day a race called the 'Orions' comes and takes certain of them away, in exchange for whatever the men need."

Tia nodded. "Even did the Silurians this not. Cared they only for gold. Left alone we in our culture were provided that submit we did. Here, these women have things nyasi."

"We were attacked the other times because you two looked soft." Hoshi continued. "You treated us as equals, didn't keep us 'properly'. Here a man's status is determined, among other things, by the number and quality of his women. If he is strong enough to keep them; he does. If he isn't, someone can take them away." She glanced at Tia. "Tia recognized something of that when she saw the mixed group coming." She hated to admit it, but the Auran woman's call had been the correct one.

"You notice there are no vehicles. People walk everywhere. The towns are widely scattered, not so disease or calamity can affect only a few, but for control. It's so that, if a woman does try to leave, she has to do so on foot. And where is there to go, except off on her own or to another town and become the property of anyone who wants to take her?"

"On Aura we weapons hide could." Tia concluded. "Women here have clothes can nyasi, so things hide she can nyasi."

x

Both men were shaken. They, especially Trip, had been focusing so hard on obtaining the materials they needed to repair the shuttle, and convincing themselves that what they saw about them could be taken at face value as the norm for this culture, that they had not seen the truth. But Hoshi and Tia saw it very well indeed.

It was now apparent _why_ this system did not appear on the 'official' charts. Either the Vulcans disapproved of the planet's practice to the extent of leaving it off their charts … Who was he kidding? More likely someone was not willing to disseminate the information beyond a certain point. Trip felt this was the more likely explanation, but did not really want to speculate on just whose motive had led to the 'cover-up'.

"This is even worse than the way the Capellans treat their women."

"Meaning?" Trip asked; surprised out of his brief reverie by Hoshi's conclusion.

"Well, the Capellans are rabid chauvinists, but at least some of their women are in respected positions, even though those 'receptance' women are not. But I hear that they are not used as commodities.

"Things on Capella were bad enough, but this is intolerable. We should do something!"

Trip was not sure he had heard the normally levelheaded woman correctly. "_Do_ something?" He asked, trying to hide his incredulity. She nodded emphatically. "And just what do you propose we _do_?"

Hoshi was about to answer, but stopped herself, realizing she did not have any answer to give.

There was nothing that Enterprise could do to influence this culture, and little Starfleet could do either, no matter how angry it made her. "Nothing, Commander." She admitted bitterly. "We'll let these women remain slaves."

x

But as the men digested this most unpalatable conclusion, Hoshi said thoughtfully; "But you know, listening to her, I couldn't help thinking of how similar the situation down here is to that aboard the Enterprise."

"Huh?" That statement had caught Trip completely unprepared.

"Well, I was thinking about something Jennifer Farber said to me a while ago. It's not as _blatant_, but on Enterprise there isn't any woman of rank except T'Pol, and she'll be the first to tell you she's not a woman, but a Vulcan." She waited for an answer, and was even more annoyed when Tucker did not seem to have one.

"Well, come on. Haven't you noticed it yourselves? We have. _Believe_ me, we have! And it was pointed out to me very forcefully a few weeks ago, after Dina was raped, that despite the fact we make up over thirty five percent of the crew, and regardless of position or duty, there is _no_ woman, including myself, ranked higher than Ensign – and I'm on the _bridge_!"

"You bucking for promotion?" Trip asked with a smile that was meant to defuse her growing annoyance. Unfortunately, it had the opposite effect.

"No, Commander, I am not 'bucking for promotion'. I'm just pointing out that the attitude on Enterprise is not that far removed from this planet. They're just more _blatant_ about it down here. Here these women have no rights, no possessions, no education, no _clothes_; but the _mindset_ is not that different."

Trip frowned at her, annoyed. "You know, I'm not sure I like being compared with this culture. The command structure is up to Starfleet, not -."

"To the ship's Second Officer?" Hoshi finished. "I'm not saying there should be changes – or _maybe_ I'm not. Maybe it's time someone gave it some _thought_! I'm just pointing out that-."

x

Whatever she was pointing out was interrupted by a piercing shriek from outside. Startled, they hurried to the front windows on either side of the door, Seamus and Tia at the left, Hoshi at the right, all looking past the curtains. Trip was blocked from view by Hoshi's body and his cautious reservation not to crowd her too closely. Another, more strident scream split the air. "_Damn_ it!" Hoshi exclaimed.

"What?" Trip asked, as more screams sliced into the building.

"They're _beating_ that woman!"

"Three men have her surrounded, across the street, three buildings to the left." O'Cathain reported.

"They're beating the _hell_ out of her!" Hoshi cried; her voice almost drowned out by the screams.

"People helping her are nyasi." Tia agreed from her position beside Seamus. "They care nyasi."

x

Hoshi started for the door, but Trip grabbed her arm.

"Where are you going?"

"To help her. And to break some heads!"

"You'll do no such thing." He was almost drowned out by shrieks of agony.

"Commander, they're beating her!"

"Commander, please _reconsider_." Seamus urged. "We can stop this!"

"And what difference are you two going to make?" Hoshi started to answer, but he gripped her even more tightly. "Think. What _difference_? We cannot change this culture, we shouldn't even _be_ here. And if we did interfere; we'd only make things worse. Where will her help be after we're gone?"

The woman continued screaming outside as Trip restrained Hoshi. Unable to bear it any longer, the Linguist pulled away. "I can't let this go on!" She backed away, trying to cover her ears as the screams continued. Trip felt the same way she did, but felt just as powerless to help. "We have to stop this. That's what the Captain would do!"

"The Cap'n's the Cap'n, and I'm not so sure he'd -."

"He'd _what_? Stop a woman from being _beaten_? Maybe you don't know him like you _think_."

"Maybe not, but I do know that we're not going to make a bit of difference in this culture." Unwanted, T'Pol's many admonitions about 'objectifying cultures' returned to him. He couldn't believe how different his position was from, say, when he'd been on Rigel X, but he had to admit that in this case she was correct. "In a few hours we're going to be able to repair the 'pod, and we're going to be gone. Whatever we do in the meantime to stir things up will only make things _worse_ for these people."

"For her it can't _get_ much worse!"

Hoshi glanced at Seamus, seeking his support. He, along with Tia, was still watching out the other window. His right hand was clenching and opening spasmodically, right where his phase pistol would have been. Another ragged scream split the air. "What's happening?" She demanded.

"Two are holding her up. The third -." He was cut off by a shriek of pain. "Commander – _please_."

"I can't _stand_ this any longer!" Hoshi cried, lunging for the table, grabbing Trip's phase pistol.

"Stand down, Hoshi." Tucker commanded, blocking her path to the door.

"NO!" She cried, actually astonishing herself more than him. "I _can't_ let this go on!"

"Put down the pistol, Ensign."

"Or what? You'll put me in irons? Bust me?" Tucker stepped closer to her, clearly straining to keep a tight control on his anger.

"I'm going to say this one last time, Ensign. Stand down and put that pistol away."

"Or what? You'll strip me of my rank?" Enraged, she threw the pistol down and it bounced loudly on the floor, making the others flinch apprehensively, but she was beyond noticing or caring. She grabbed the blanket that surrounded her, flinging it from her naked body. "I've already been stripped of everything _else_!"

"Except your dignity." Tucker answered, feeling his anger building, fueled by frustration. "Only you can do that." He so desperately wanted to join her in breaking some heads, but he knew they could accomplish no good at all.

Then there was silence outside. O'Cathain looked out the window again. "She's down." He reported grimly. "She's not moving."

x

Hoshi turned away, unable to bear the guilt or face her friends. "This is _our_ fault. I could have saved her!"

"Maybe today; but not tomorrow." He turned away as well from his naked friend, toward the window, frustrated by his own inability to affect things on this planet. He could have saved one woman, true. He'd wanted to. He'd dearly _wanted_ to. It might have even inspired an epiphany; but that was unlikely. What it would have _inspired_ was a backlash that was sure to last long after they were gone.

"_Damn_ it. This is _wrong_. This is _perverted_!" Hoshi cried, turning back to them. "And you stood there and did _nothing_. I was right; you're no better than they are!"

Tucker stopped cold, almost to the window, turning a moment later to look at her.

"Meaning?" The one word was deadly, his tone laden with warning, but she was beyond hearing. She stood up to him, so angry she did not even notice she was still naked.

"Meaning you don't mind this at all. I've seen it in your eyes. This is even _worse_ than what happened this month. Dina raped! Everyone on Enterprise _humiliated_ by loads of nude pictures circulating the ship! Don't think I don't know that people were recording them even as Malcolm and T'Pol were trying to delete them. There must be _thousands_ up there! Did you have your monitor set to record _too_?"

She was so angry, so focused, that she did not see the outrage in his eyes.

"This is worse than the Capellans, and until I met them I didn't think I could grow to _hate_ any race. They use their women for entertainment, for 'receptance'; for who knows what? But then they – Saal - _raped_ _Dina_! And to them it was _nothing_. _She_ was nothing. Just another _woman_ – to be used as _men_ see fit!

"And now here we are, on a planet full of naked, helpless and _submissive_ women reduced to nothing but slaves. You even have your _own people_ naked and powerless. This is even _more_ effective than having no woman aboard above Ensign. This planet _really_ teaches you how to keep women in their places!

"You must be _loving_ this! Maybe you'd prefer _me_ in irons. Naked, bound, _gagged_ and laid spread wide open at your _feet_!"

x

The moment the words were out of her mouth she saw past Trip that Seamus had closed his eyes, a pained look on his face. Tia stared at her in astonished disbelief, and when she focused back on Trip he was standing perfectly still, his fists clenched at his sides, on his red face an expression of very carefully contained fury. In that moment the rage deserted her and she realized just how far she'd gone.

"I'm sorry, sir. That was uncalled for." She said softly, regretting her furious outburst.

He didn't answer. For a very long moment he was unable to speak. Finally, when he did answer, his voice was utterly flat; every syllable clearly and carefully enunciated as he put all his effort into controlling his tone.

"Ensign, you are on Report. We will continue this discussion aboard Enterprise."

"Sir…"

He turned away sharply to Seamus. "Lt. O'Cathain, they should be ready with those parts by now. Let's go."

"Sir?" Hoshi tried again, but he turned to her, feeling the control of his anger starting to slip.

"I will deal with you _later_, Ensign."

"Commander." O'Cathain interrupted. "If I may have a moment?" He indicated the door to the bedroom where she had gotten the blanket. Tucker kept his tone as level as his anger permitted. He needed a few minutes as well. He could not face the upcoming mission with anger boiling his blood.

"Five minutes, Lieutenant." He wanted – needed – the time as well, to cool his fury, or he would never have agreed.

x

Seamus picked up Hoshi's discarded blanket and then took her arm, ushering her into the side room and closing the door. He leaned against it, regarding her with disbelief, and handed her the blanket. She was about to put it on, but reconsidered. He had seen her often enough like this for about a year. She threw the blanket dejectedly at the bed. He shook his head in wonder.

"Hosh, you _really_ screwed it this time." She looked down, unable to think of an answer. "These five minutes are more for Tia. I hope she can bring him down. Now I know you're wildly stressed out, but you've _got_ to get hold of yourself. Otherwise you _will_ wind up in irons."

"I know." She looked up hopefully. "Do you think you can …?"

"I'll try." He managed a half smile. "Maybe when I get him alone I can come up with something."

x

Tia Anlor stepped closer to Trip. In her bare feet, she stood as tall as his eyes, but she turned her own golden orbs up to him. "Hoshi right is." She said softly.

Trip glared at her. "Don't you start!" He gritted, trying to keep his anger under control.

"I start thing nyasi. Only I you remind do. This Aura nyasi, this Earth nyasi, but your planet's people these are. Help them you should."

"Tia, you don't understand."

She stepped closer until they were almost touching, and her quiet tone changed to titanium. "_Trinasli_ _nyasi_? From the day of my _birth_ I a slave was and _I_ _understand not_? I a slave was – but a slave of the _Silurians_! We 'overseers' had; Aurans who for gain capitulated. But we were slaves of _aliens_! These humans slaves of _humans_ are; your own race selling and hurting itself. You human are. You something should do, yet thing you did _nyasi_!"

"What could I do?"

"You her did _look_ at nyasi! If you her for do nyasura – nothing – at least _look_ at what you to happen allowed. You me say to that Starfleet my planet help can nyasi, that to defeat the Silurians you can nyasi. Enterprise can defeat them nyasi; and one ship alone do you have. This accept I do, though it I _like_ _nyasi_!

"But now say you that you these people help can nyasi. Say I you that to _learn_ to help you must. Say 'Starfleet cannot do so' _nyasi_. Say what help you give _can_!"

Despite his best efforts, he could no longer control his fury. "Don't you think I _wanted_ to?" He demanded hotly. "Don't you think I wanted to tear out there and save her? I wanted to – but what _good_ will it do? What will it _change_? Show me where I can affect this world and save all these women and I'll do it, but _don't_ come to me and say I don't _care_!"

x

For several seconds she continued to stare into his eyes, but then her own softened. She could no longer stand so close to him, so confrontationally close, and backed away a step, breaking their contact. "I you care know do." She said softly. "You more than many on your ship I see care do." But then again she met his eyes. "But what will you Hoshi with do? Right she was."

"She wasn't –."

"Right she was." Tia maintained adamantly. "Men this world on command their women – and _beat_ them when they wish, when angry they are or punish wish to. Men on Enterprise do beat the women not – yet command they them do, and can _punish_ as well."

"Now wait just a minute!" Trip exclaimed, insulted that she would think he would do such a thing as they had witnessed here.

"Understand I 'on report' not, but '_punish'_ you Hoshi going to are?"

"That's different. That's not 'punishment', that's discipline."

"'Spoke her mind' she did?"

"Yes. But she exceeded her limits."

"Her limits? Or yours?" He stared at her, as shocked as he was outraged. "She your 'discipline' will like not?"

"Very likely not, but I _can't_ change that."

Tia stepped very close, but even as close as she was he could barely hear her softened voice. "The week before escaping Aura, 'disciplined' I you know was. Forty two men raped me. I did _that_ like not."

x

Charles Tucker stared into the expressive eyes of the young golden woman, while inside compassion and fury warred violently, along with duty and a desire to just let it go. But he could not 'let it go'. He had to put Hoshi on Report, and Regulations were very specific on dealing with such Gross Insubordination as she was guilty of. His hands were essentially tied, now that she had done what she had and he had determined to place her on Report, to face the consequences of her action.

But was Tia right? In disciplining Hoshi, was he going to follow Regulations and thereby subject her, symbolically, to the same thing Tia had suffered?

No. This was Military Law, not personal. It was all spelled out in the Code of Military Conduct. There had to be a chain of command in Starfleet, with all that that chain represented, and Hoshi had to be reminded of the Regulations they operated under. This was not personal. This was professional.

"I'm sorry; what's going to happen she brought upon herself. I can't change it."

"Can not? Or _will_ not?"

"All right. Will not."

Shutting her out, he stepped around Tia, not looking at her as he strode across the room to rap sharply at the bedroom door.

xx

"Let's go, Lieutenant." Tucker's voice forced its way through the door.

Seamus O'Cathain had been holding Hoshi in his arms, trying to ease her anxiety and distress, but he released her at the sharp summons. "Hang in there." He said to her before turning and opening the door, leaving her alone.

Hoshi sat down on the bed. She was surprised to find herself shaking, more from the coming down of her own rage and the flood of adrenaline than from a mounting apprehension, though a large part of her reaction was still that apprehension. She looked up as the door opened again and Tia entered. Hoshi had automatically raised her hand to cover her breasts, but lowered it again resignedly. "He's pretty mad." She said. It was hardly a guess.

"He me hears nyasi."

"Seamus is right. I really _screwed_ up."

"Daai."


	5. Ferengi

Chapter Five

Ferengi

When the men exited the building, Trip was relieved to see that there was no body lying in the street. He had doubted there would be. Someone, he was sure, would have taken the unfortunate woman away.

As he thought this, he realized his hope was more to ease the sting of his own conscience, and the bites from the women inside the house; things he did not _want_ to admit but that he _had_ to admit were painfully true.

They turned toward the far end of town, and in his efforts not to notice anything amiss that would sting his conscience more, he could not help but seek out that disturbance, much as he did not want to find the spot. Perversely, his very efforts not to see it caused him to find it with unerring accuracy.

He stopped dead, looking down at the packed dirt road before him. In that one small area were concentrated various fresh scuff marks of boots, and many large and small patches of fresh, red blood.

O'Cathain turned, seeing Tucker riveted, unable to tear his eyes away from the damning sight which seemed to shout accusation deeply into his tortured soul.

"Could I have prevented this?" Trip asked his friend, unable to look away from the blood.

"This? Yes." Tucker's eyes met his in a flare of anger O'Cathain did not acknowledge. "The next one? No."

"I could have stopped her pain."

"But you can't change a world, and that's the hard lesson. Plus, what if our action had the result of flaring back on Hoshi and Tia? We can't change a world, but we can't fight a world either – and as Commander you have to consider the people in your care."

Trip sighed. "Regulations can be comforting to the conscience, can't they?" He asked, bitterly.

"No, sir. I've never found that they can."

"I'd love to have come charging out of there, phase pistols blazing, and restore law and order to Dodge. But then do we just ride off into the west, into the sunset?"

"Technically that'd be the northeast." The Astrometer reminded him.

It helped to also remind him that they were not on Earth.

x

As they resumed their trek Trip looked around them at the various people going about their own business, oblivious to the human 'aliens' in their equally human midst. The clothed men and naked women paid them no mind, not even 'seeing' them, despite their uniforms. "Seamus, tell me something. Have I really grown too comfortable with things on Enterprise?"

Seamus hesitated, not sure how to answer that. Tucker had regained control of his temper, and he did not want to say anything that would make matters worse; or even remind him of how bad it had been. "Sir?"

"I'm talking about things on Enterprise. Is Hoshi right? Do we use the rank system to keep the women down? I've never thought much about rank on Enterprise. It honestly never _occurred_ to me that there were no women above Ensign. Everyone works together. I always thought we worked very smoothly. But have I just ignored things, or have I just not seen what's been under my nose for two years? Do we operate, I don't know, a 'men's club'?"

"I've never been one for counting silver pips. We've got eighty five people aboard. We're too small a group to worry about things like that."

"That's the way I've always seen it. It honestly never occurred to me that there would be this issue of rank. We're too small a group, work too closely together, to let this matter."

"I've been a Lieutenant for six years. How long have you been a Commander?"

Trip shrugged. "A little longer."

"It's easier for us who have rank to forget about it, than it is for those without it. I can tell anyone from a Lieutenant who was promoted a minute after me on down what to do, within Regulations. I have a hard time sometimes remembering when I couldn't."

Trip shook his head. "This is getting us nowhere." But he seemed not to be moving on either.

After a moment of silence, O'Cathain asked; "Sir?"

"What is it?"

"What do you intend to do about Hoshi?" He immediately regretted it when he saw the anger return to Tucker's eyes.

"She crossed the line. Several times in fact. I'm all for open input and communication, but not insubordination. And she was insubordinate, blatantly so."

"Yes, sir. I have to admit she was, but I'll ask you to consider the inordinate amount of stress she's under, that she's been under for quite a while."

"I did. That's why she's just on Report, and I said I'll deal with things when I'm back on Enterprise. I was too mad then. I'd have busted her down to civilian and locked her in the brig!"

xxx

Not a word more was said between the two men as they continued their trek to the low hills at the far edge of the town, to the place where Rodd and Beri had their sprawling establishment.

Tucker, wanting to get a better view of the layout, bore to his right, intending to approach the huge warehouse from the rear.

As they circled the building, hidden by low hills, and were about to clear the final rise, Tucker stopped. "Listen." O'Cathain stopped as well, listening carefully in the quiet, but all he could hear was a faint, almost inaudible hum. "Son of a Bitch!" Tucker exclaimed, starting to run. He cleared the rise about two meters before the Astrometer, and instantly dropped down into a crouch.

Before them and slightly to their left was the rear of the warehouse, a single wide door open. To their right was a copper colored ship consisting of a semi-cylindrical unit from which two graceful curved 'arms' protruded forward, looking as though they would stretch to meet. Set beyond these, furthest to the right, was the source of the low hum; Shuttlepod Two.

From under the rear of the ship, a pair of legs protruded. "Son of a Bitch." Tucker repeated feelingly. "No wonder Beri knew the kind of parts we needed – he already had an order in for them."

"That guy must have moved the pod using his own ship."

"From the sound of that engine, he's practically got it fixed."

O'Cathain drew his phase pistol. "So, let's retrieve our property." Tucker put a restraining hand on the pistol.

"No, not yet. You want to start a shooting war? Look, go back and get the girls. Tell them to haul ass back here."

O'Cathain chuckled. "I think I'll rephrase that."

"You do that. Run!"

He ran.

x

Tucker watched tensely, laying flat on his stomach at the top of the low rise about thirty meters from the ships as the man continued to work under the pod. He thought the other was out of his mind, performing maintenance on a system that was under power, but at least it allowed the Chief Engineer to track the progress of his work. He knew from the varying sounds and tones, frequency and pitch, just how close to proper calibration the ship was, and he had to give grudging respect to a right masterly piece of work. He might even admire the man if the other were not trying to steal his ship.

Just before the thief could finish, the rest of the Enterprise crew returned with their supplies, getting down low beside Tucker. "Anybody see you?" He asked with a tight smile.

"The whole _town_ saw us." O'Cathain replied. "We created quite a stir running pall mall across town, but no one pursued us. They've either got a laizze faire attitude; or its just every man for himself."

"Whatever it is, I'll be glad to leave it. That guy's almost done." As if on cue, the pair of legs led a shimmying body out from under the pod, and their owner stood up. He was about 1.5 meters tall, bulbous body, bulbous nose and the biggest pair of ears three of them had ever seen. "Son of a Bitch!" Tucker cursed again.

"What?"

"That's one of those fellows who looted the Enterprise a couple of months back. Either that or their ugly brother."

"I never did see them." O'Cathain replied. "But remember Krenim mentioned that the 'Ferengi' do a lot of business here. He might be a 'Ferengi'."

"Makes sense. Greedy bastards, they were." The little man went into the warehouse with a hobbling walk, and came out again a few moments later. Fortunately, he did so alone.

"I can get him from here, Commander." O'Cathain offered, starting to pull out his phase pistol. But before Trip could answer, Hoshi surprised them all by standing up.

"I can get him from there." She declared quietly, starting down the grassy hill as the others stared at her, astonished.

"Son of a…" Trip started, but could not finish.

x

The Ferengi, halfway between the two ships, stopped in equal surprise as Hoshi cleared the top of the rise and started down toward him, approaching with a slow, sensuous movement so blatantly sexual it could have flummoxed a Vulcan Elder.

As she walked, Hoshi added an extra sway to her hips, an extra sensuality to her walk, and her hands came up to cup and caress her breasts as if in offer, her thumbs lightly stroking her nipples into erect response. Tucker watched her, mouth gaping in shock, unable to speak. Beside him O'Cathain was muttering a long string of Gaelic curses as Hoshi reached the Ferengi.

She reached out, her hands stroking his huge ears sensuously. The touch had a startling and profound effect on the alien. He had been about to reach for her but stopped instantly, overcome with sensation. Hoshi continued to caress his ears, and the expression on the smaller creature's face went from surprise to ecstasy. He let out an impassioned groan that carried all the way up the hill.

"I'll be damned." Tucker whispered as more of the creature's ecstatic responses filled the air, and he seemed to be having a great deal of trouble standing. Hoshi's body was moving in sympathetic accord, undulating against him, and it looked to the three watchers as though she was enjoying it almost as much as he was. "Let's go."

They got up, bringing their supplies and approaching the 'pod and the distracted couple. The Ferengi fell to his knees, unable to stand, and Hoshi stayed with him, fondling his ears sensuously, her own cries of mounting lust providing an underscore as the Ferengi's increased in pitch.

As Trip and Tia passed the couple, neither able to believe their eyes, the Ferengi fell helplessly to his back, Hoshi riding him down to lay atop him, continuing to manipulate his ears as the creature's lustful cries grew louder, more strident, and Hoshi's followed along, her chest heaving in simulated orgasmic passion. O'Cathain, barely able to tear his eyes off the outrageous scene, dashed toward the copper colored ship, vanishing inside it. Trip and Tia made it to the 'pod and stowed their gear, Trip rushing to the controls. A quick check showed everything on the green, all ready for launch.

O'Cathain hurried out of the Ferengi's ship about thirty seconds later, rushing for the pod as the creature writhed about on the ground, his cries reaching almost screaming proportions and Hoshi kept her own hot cries carrying right along with his as she lay upon him, seemingly writhing in ecstasy. As O'Cathain stopped beside them, looking down at his beloved, eyes wide in outraged consternation, the Ferengi's writhing body passed a summit and he convulsed upon the ground, Hoshi reaching an almost screaming 'response' seconds before the creature lay still, unconscious on the grass. Hoshi looked up at Seamus with a grin.

"Are you _quite through_?" He demanded. With a laugh, Hoshi was up and running for the door.

x

The Shuttlepod took off with alacrity. "All the readings are good. Better yet, everything sounds right," Trip explained as they started to clear the planet's ionized atmosphere, "but I want to get onto Enterprise before we have any _more_ surprises. I intend to give this 'pod a thorough going over before I'll trust it again." He looked at Seamus in the co-pilot's seat. "What did you do on his ship?"

"I screwed up his Astrogation system. No damage, but it'll take him about half an hour to recalibrate. By then we'd be long gone."

"Your mouth to God's ear." As they left the atmosphere, the light blue of the forward plates darkened, and the stars came into view. With the charged atmosphere behind them, he opened up a communications channel. "Enterprise, come in." A few seconds later, the welcome voice of Jonathan Archer came from the speaker.

"We read you, Trip. We were getting worried."

"No problems here, Cap'n. How's the ship?"

"We took a few jolts, but we weathered the storm. You shouldn't be too busy."

"Glad to hear it."

"I have them, sir." O'Cathain reported. "Bearing 147/23/269. Distance 11,523 kilometers." That put the huge starship at a considerably higher orbit and behind them.

"Enterprise, we'll rendezvous with you in 13 minutes. Tucker out." He started to turn the ship in a leisurely maneuver. When they were going in the right direction, the approaching starship was invisible in the distance against the backdrop of stars.

In the rear section, Hoshi Sato stood up and went to the spacesuit locker, taking out one of the copper colored suits for herself, the other for Tia. She passed the second to her friend, who accepted it with a look of disgust. "What's wrong?"

Tia shook her head. "It just that so often is from a planet back I come, this thing must I wear." She said, recalling the aborted survey mission on Elanis IV that she, Liz Cutler and Travis Mayweather had endured.

"Not every time." Hoshi contradicted, preparing to step into the legs of her suit. "Only the interesting times." At least this time, no helmet would be needed.

"Speaking of which, Hoshi, you did good." Trip said.

"Thank you." She said, relieved. The last words he'd said to her on the planet, he had been ready to bite her head off.

"But whatever gave you the idea?"

"It was something I read once." She explained, pulling the lower half of the suit up past her hips. It felt so good to be dressing again. "'In any negotiation, a naked woman always has the advantage'. Trip looked back in surprise, but she smiled, and seeing her still topless as she was he found he could hardly contest the point. "Then, when you recognized that this was one of the same race as the three that had looted Enterprise a couple of months ago, I recalled Sub-Commander T'Pol's report about something they called 'oomlox' and how she used it to 'distract' one of them."

"But how you could?" Tia asked. Hoshi turned to her, noting the younger woman had not started dressing yet.

"Oh, their ears are very sensitive, and are an erogenous …"

"Nyas! How you _could_?" She insisted, wrinkling her nose in disgust.

"Oh, easy. I just kept concentrating on Seamus." Up front, Trip glanced at the Astrometer's head, particularly his normal, human sized ears. The two men exchanged a look, and a mystified shrug. Hoshi continued her explanation to Tia. "He also has something huge that he loves to have stroked."

Up front, Seamus concentrated very hard on the controls before him, Trip shaking his head in consternation. "Ooh-Kay! That's _more_ information than I _needed to know_!"

Trying to ignore the giggling coming from the rear, he cut in the thrusters.


	6. Aftermath

Chapter Six

Aftermath

In the day since the Survey Party had returned to the Enterprise, things had not returned to normal. Beyond the slight damage from the solar flares and their accompanying electromagnetic pulses, all of which had been minimal, the starship had weathered the storm virtually unscathed. The immediate trip to Sick Bay for the relief of various bruises and other injuries suffered by the team; Hoshi had been quite happy to be rid of that black eye; had not relieved her of her anxiety. Things were decidedly not normal.

Hoshi had spent an uncomfortable night, even though it had not been in her own quarters. The relief of tensions that she and Seamus had shared had done nothing for the anxiety that lingered in her heart. She knew she was on 'Report', and though she had done well in the end and allowed the team to make a non-violent and successful escape from the planet, she knew Tucker had not forgotten her insubordination, and she would pay the price for her actions on Declan IV.

All through the morning she could sense an unexpressed tension on the bridge. No one confronted her or expressed any problem to her, but the tension was there. It was there last evening in the way Tucker had pulled Archer aside in the Sick Bay for a private consultation. It was there in the way Archer's eyes had looked when she'd told him that evening that she'd logged her report about the mission. It was there this morning in his prolonged absence from the center chair.

He was on the bridge, she knew. He had arrived long before the start of her shift; as the Gamma shift Comm officer had reported when she'd relieved him at 0800; but he had not left his Ready Room all morning.

The other members of the Bridge Crew, Reed, T'Pol, Mayweather, Anderson, they all felt it but no one spoke of it. She could see it in their eyes (all but T'Pol's) but no one said anything. No one wanted to speak of the miasma that filled the bridge any more than she did. But it was there; palpable, almost physical, like a psychic pall over everything.

Finally, just before 1100, a light on her panel; the intercom to the Captain's Ready Room, flashed. She touched it. "Yes, sir?"

"Would you come in here, Hoshi?"

"Right away, sir." She was made more nervous by the grim tone in his voice than she was about the Summons itself. She had known the Summons would come, but there was something in her Commander's voice that made her even more apprehensive. She got up and crossed the bridge as quickly as she could, not wanting to delay him.

But when the inner door at the base of the three steps slid aside, she could almost feel the unease in the air like a physical thing. "You wanted to see me, sir?" The formal question sounded inane to her ears.

Archer was seated behind his desk, holding two thin square data modules in his hands, shuffling them absently. "Please sit down, Ensign."

"Yes, sir." 'Ensign'. That did not sound good. She took the seat as quietly as she could, as if she could be an unnoticed prey if she just kept still and quiet. Archer did not speak for several moments, and the grim look on his face made her more nervous by the moment.

"Ensign," he held up one of the two square modules, "I've received a detailed report from Commander Tucker regarding the events on Declan IV. I've also reviewed your report." He left it hanging, making it clear he offered her the chance to change anything that she wished to.

"Sir, I stand by my report."

"I was hoping you would. You were honest about the … incident cited in Commander Tucker's Charge."

Hoshi felt her heart skip, and suddenly her mouth was dry. "Charge, sir?" She felt as if a cold blade had cut her heart. He hadn't said 'Complaint', he hadn't said 'Reprimand'. He'd actually said 'Charge'.

"Actually, I should say 'Charges'. Commander Tucker was quite explicit about several of them." He picked up another thin module, displaying the three of them together to her. "Lt. O'Cathain substantiates the events as cited." He put the disks back down with an expression of disgust. "Have you anything to say?"

She swallowed; a painful motion of her dry throat. "No, sir. I realize my behavior was inappropriate, and that I deserve to be disciplined -."

"Disciplined?" He sounded like he couldn't believe she'd used the word. "I don't think you appreciate the seriousness of this issue."

"Believe me, sir, I do."

"I don't think so." He contradicted firmly. He held up the first module. "This contains some pretty strong recommendations. Frankly, I was shocked." He sighed, letting it drop onto the desk, hiding one clenched fist by his other hand.

"Captain, I -." Whatever she would have said died in her throat when she saw the expression on his face.

"Ensign, several of the points raised by Commander Tucker take this entirely out of my hands. I have been in touch with Starfleet Command for most of the morning, and if they return the answer that I expect them to, it's going to mean a Special Court Martial."

Hoshi felt the blade of ice pierce her heart. She stared at him, unable to believe he'd said that. She'd expected a reprimand; maybe loss of privileges; a letter in her permanent file… Not Court Martial! "Sir?"

Archer held up his hand. "I'm hoping it doesn't come to that, but its Command's decision, not mine. I can only caution you that they view matters like this very seriously." He sighed. "I just wanted you to be prepared."

"Sir, I –."

"Dismissed."

She wanted to protest, to explain, to … to do something. Anything! But he'd already dismissed her and she was not going to risk disobeying him when her neck was already so near the noose. She stood up, feeling very cold, very scared; so scared she was starting to tremble, unable to think of what she could say. She almost felt as she had in her early days aboard this ship, when even a mild turbulence had her clutching the support bar beside her station in undisguised panic. She'd never wanted to return to those days ever again. She tried to fight it, to walk out of the room, to escape while the chill of fear rushed through her veins.

She made it back to her station, sat down, and could not think.

x

For nearly an hour her mind played and replayed every last, humiliating moment on Declan IV, looking for what she had done wrong, what she could have done differently, where she had screwed up. And the answer kept coming back to her in merciless clarity.

'Everything'.

The entire mission had been a farrago of disasters, and in the middle of it all was Hoshi Sato, mindlessly contributing her best efforts to making a bad situation worse. There had not been a single thing she had done right. They'd been lucky to come away alive. She had been completely out of control, and every time she'd opened her mouth she'd made things worse; hindering instead of helping. She could have caused a catastrophe for the inhabitants of that planet. She'd had to have been stopped, before she did something that would have had unimaginably horrible consequences for the very people she'd thought to protect!

And what had she done in response? She'd gotten into her Commander's face and practically accused him of being an out of control sexual pervert with lustful designs upon his own crew!

Practically? She couldn't even remember now what she had actually said, but she was sure that if she'd been a man…

And she decided she deserved it.

True, in the end she had 'redeemed herself', she'd thought, by what she'd _thought_ was a truly inspired piece of initiative. Now she realized it was probably no such thing.

xxx

Lunchtime eventually came, and she was too sick with apprehension to eat. She went anyway, because every time a signal came in, no matter what it was, she had jumped. She had to get away from her board before she screamed.

She found her friends from Life Sciences, Elizabeth Cutler and Tia Anlor, at their usual table. She sat down stiffly, putting her barely noticed tray before her.

"On a diet?" Liz asked, capturing her attention.

"Huh?" She followed Liz's gaze to her tray. The plate and cup on it were both empty.

"I'm the one who's going to have to start watching my figure." Liz admonished playfully, patting her abdomen. It would be a few weeks yet before she started showing her pregnancy through her uniform, but she'd decided to get some 'mileage' out of it nonetheless. Hoshi murmured an indistinct answer. "What?"

Hoshi looked up from her plate into her friend's eyes, her chaotic emotions barely allowing her to keep her voice low. "I said 'they're court martialling me'."

Liz's arm fell to the table in limp shock. "Oh, damn." She breathed.

"Court martialling bad is?" Tia asked. Liz looked at her.

"Very, _very_ bad."

"Oh." She looked at Hoshi. "Sorry I am."

"_Why_? What did – what do they _say_ you did?"

Hoshi would always be grateful for her friend's support. In as calm a tone as she could, she gave a capsule version of what had happened on Declan IV. "Frap, that deserves a Reprimand, not a Court Martial!"

"Apparently Command sees it differently." She stared down at her empty plate before deciding, "I can't sit here. I'm too sick to eat. I have to go back to the bridge. I want to be there when…" She couldn't say it. She barely wanted to _think_ it. "I'll see you later." She was half way out of her chair when Liz clutched her hand.

"Now you just hang in there. We'll be pulling for you."

"Daai."

"Thanks, you two. I …" She couldn't even think of what to say. She was so touched, but her mind was a maelstrom of emotions. "I'll see you later."

xxx

Hoshi enters the bridge, finding it unchanged yet alien. Things and people are exactly where they should be, but her apprehension lends an air of strangeness to everything. It feels like all eyes are on her as she crosses to her station. She glances at Ann Anderson manning the Situation Room, but the woman averts her eyes, then looks back guiltily, embarrassed at having done so. But though she tries to smile, it is lackluster at best. Hoshi is unpleasantly surprised to find Crewwoman Grace Winters, her Beta Shift relief officer, seated in her place. The blonde woman looks up. "Captain wants to see you."

Those five words drive an icy blade into her heart. She looks across the round bridge at the door to the Captain's private sanctum. She tries to stiffen up her courage. She'd know nothing until she went in, and maybe a miracle has happened and she has been forgiven.

She crosses the bridge in front of Travis, and the sympathetic look in his eyes is hard to bear. Instead, she tries to not notice if anyone else is watching.

The fear that had been her constant and unwelcome companion and tormentor over her first months on this ship has come out of hiding to ambush her.

She stops outside the door, trying to keep her finger from trembling as she reaches for the annunciation button. "Come." The voice coming out of the intercom is faint, but still too loud. She can not pretend not to have heard it. Pressing the other button, she steps through the sliding door, going down the three steps and keying the inner door.

She couldn't come further in as the door slid shut half an inch behind her back. Jonathan Archer is seated exactly where she'd left him only a little more than an hour before. He holds a thin square data module in his hand. She tries not to read anything into the fact that it is black.

He sets it down and looks at her, his expression grim. "You're Relieved of Duty."

x

Hoshi opens her mouth. She wants so say something. Anything. She tries _so hard_ but nothing comes out.

He stands up, as if he can not sit still either. "I'm sorry. By Starfleet Order, you are confined to the brig pending Special Court Martial."

She tries to speak. To plead. To … to … anything! He comes around the desk, taking her arm gently and turning her toward the door. She needs his help getting out of the room. He escorts her onto the bridge, and she prays she can wake up.

"Your attention please." Archer says, grasping everyone's attention. They look at their Commanding Officer, mildly surprised to see him gripping Hoshi Sato's arm. His next words transform their surprise into shock. "Per Starfleet orders this date, Hoshi Sato is hereby Relieved of Duty as Ensign in charge of Communications for this ship. She is remanded to the custody of ship's Security and ordered to be held in the brig pending Special Court Martial. Hearing is to convene at 1500 hours today. Lt Reed?"

The Tactical Officer / Chief of Security looks at the pair, unable to believe what his Captain has just said. "Sir?"

"You will escort the prisoner to the brig immediately, and leave her under guard."

"Yes, sir." Reed replies, monumental disbelief in his tone. It all seems too familiar. It had been a little more than a week since he had taken Mary Tigat, from his own Security Division, off the bridge. He comes around his station, taking Hoshi's arm, waiting for Archer to say 'just kidding'.

But there is no such reprieve.

x

Hoshi feels like she is moving through a nightmare, her body unresponsive; her mind unable to function, unable to deal with the surreal scene. She is under arrest. She is really under _arrest_. She is about to be pulled off the bridge in disgrace and locked in a _cell_.

This can't really be happening.

It _can't_!

Reed's gentle tug on her arm gets her legs moving, but her mind works no more for her than does her body. She keeps hearing her thoughts repeat over and over in her head; 'Wake up. Wake up. Please, somebody – _let me wake up_!'

When Reed has to turn her around in the turbo lift, she sees her friends staring at her in varying degrees of shock. It is on that tableau that the door closes.

Concludes in 'The Court Martial of Hoshi Sato'.


End file.
